Leader flies into Ansett fray

By SCOTT MacLEOD transport reporter

Air New Zealand chief executive Gary Toomey flew to Melbourne last night to face criticism over the crisis that has seen subsidiary Ansett Australia's passenger jets grounded at the busiest time of year.

Ansett faces its most stern test today as it tries to fly 37,000 Easter passengers around Australia while 10 of its 63 aircraft are grounded for compulsory safety checks.

As the crisis escalated yesterday, the airline faced criticism on a number of fronts:

* A union in Australia claimed that the airline had been delaying repairs and maintenance until the last moment to save money.

* The Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) considered grounding the airline's entire fleet.

* Politicians and the media claimed that the airline was not doing enough to help passengers who had booked for Easter.

"Ansett needs to do all it can to make sure passengers get back into the air as quickly as possible. If that means executives coming back to explain what's going on then so be it," said New South Wales Fair Trading Minister John Watkins.

Air NZ and Ansett Australia chief executive Gary Toomey left Auckland for Melbourne at 6 pm yesterday after spending four days on the phone arranging alternative flights for Ansett ticket-holders.

Mr Toomey told the Herald that he could not leave sooner because the trip would have robbed him of precious time - he had been on the phone from 6 am until midnight since the crisis broke.

He left as Ansett was still trying to organise flights for some of the passengers who will turn up at airports today.

Air NZ has already pitched in with two Boeing 767s, and late yesterday was to send a Boeing 747-400.

Ansett's 10 Boeing 767s were grounded on Thursday amid a string of embarrassing safety gaffes. Engineers found cracks in engine mounts on at least three of the planes, and another flew eight times with none of its emergency escape chutes working.

Australia's Civil Aviation Safety Authority has told Ansett it has until May 4 to prove why it should be allowed to keep its certificates.

As Government inspectors checked the grounded jets yesterday, there were reports that, to save money, Ansett had waited until the last moment to repair planes and that it routinely avoided maintenance work.

Sydney's Sun-Herald newspaper reported that Australian Manufacturing Workers Union members who made the claims were worried that the repair delays could threaten safety.

Increased competition in the Australian aviation market, staff cuts and economy measures had affected maintenance and safety, said the union president, Julius Roe.

"Competitive pressures mean they cut corners, they do maintenance less often, they wait for things to start to go wrong before they fix them.

"There was informal contact by our members in Ansett's Melbourne maintenance centre to ensure CASA was alerted to the appalling management." CASA officials said yesterday that they were considering grounding Ansett's entire fleet, not just the Boeing 767s, because of systematic problems in the airline's maintenance system.

Mick Toller, the agency's director of aviation safety, said CASA was concerned the maintenance problems extended to the rest of Ansett's 63-aircraft fleet of Boeing and Airbus planes.

"Having decided, and I think absolutely correctly, that we'd just act on the 767s, prudence dictates that we also keep a close eye on the other aircraft to make sure that our judgment was correct," he said.

Mr Toomey said four people had been suspended - two engineers who had signed off the chutes, and two technicians.

He said most of the problems stemmed from a system that had been in place before Air NZ took over Ansett, and which had since been changed to give more efficient safety checks.

"Damage to the reputation of Ansett is our paramount concern," he said. "I'm not saying that all the problems are fixed, I'm saying the systemic problems are [under control]."

Mr Toomey said Air NZ should be safe from the bad public perception of Ansett, because the airlines had different brands.

But Air NZ shares as well as Ansett shares are expected to take a thumping tomorrow when sharemarkets open after the Easter break.

Mr Toomey said an announcement would be made to sharemarkets tomorrow.

The latest problem unfolded on Friday, when a problem with paperwork caused the first safety checks to be delayed by 24 hours.

Mr Toomey said the problem was caused by CASA officials failing to pick up the paperwork, but CASA told the Herald that it was up to the airline to deliver the papers, which took until midday Saturday.

CASA spokesman Peter Gibson said documents were being checked late yesterday, and the first plane would be physically checked today. It would take until tomorrow or Wednesday for the first plane to be cleared to fly. If the first plane passed checks, then inspections may be sped up on the others. If not, then the planes would have to stay grounded for more thorough checks.

Either way, it would take at least two weeks to check all the planes.

Mr Gibson said one of the engine mounting cracks was 125mm long. There had been two fatal crashes in the past 20 years caused by similar cracks on other planes.

"This is the biggest grounding we've ever had," he said. "We don't want to just see changes at the top. We want to see evidence that the changes will flow down to the shop floor, that they will have better training and resources."

Countdown to crisis:


April 7: Safety inspectors first uncover engine-mount cracks in Ansett 767-200 planes.

April 9: Seven 767-200 planes grounded.

April 10: Four back in the air. The company says it's business as usual.

April 11: Investigations into Ansett's maintenance regime expanded.

April 13: All 10 of Ansett's 767-200 planes grounded. The airline is given three weeks to improve, or risk losing permission to fly.